What Have They Really Won?

A temporary reprieve, that's what. I am reading a lot of doom and gloom in the posts and comments on American Thinker this morning. Yes, yes I know -- four more years of Obama. That does stink. But, has Obama really won anything permanent? I would argue that he has not. Let me go into some of the reasons why. I will address the obvious worries of my fellow American Thinker readers one-by-one.Obama will turn the US into an entitlement state

The U.S. was an entitlement state long before Obama. He only accelerated the process. However, in doing so, he also accelerated the pace of cities and municipalities acknowledging the budget shortfalls they had been hiding for decades. Now they are falling like dominoes and he is powerless to stop it. He is also powerless to stop governors like Scott Walker from enacting reforms that bring real prosperity. The media will not be able to hide this forever. It is too close to home or coming soon to a city near you.

The Democrats will have a permanent majority

Sure, they will. Some of us seem to have forgotten the wave of correction in November of 2010. Think of the disgust after four more years of unwillingness to get government out of the way of the private sector and blaming Bush for businesses sitting on their cash. The Democrats will have to move forward after Obama and that will be a tough sell after nearly a decade of stagnation.

They will take away our guns

Yeah, right. You know how we conservatives lament the fact that progressives have spent the past century infiltrating every area of public life? Well, conservatives have spent the past two centuries collecting firearms for maintaining the peace and for nonviolent sport. The number of privately-owned firearms is so large that the state and federal governments could never hope to confiscate them all. And who would carry out the confiscations anyway? Police? How many anti-gun officers do you know? Their heart would not be in it and the whole program would devolve into a token effort.

They will replace conservative Supreme Court justices with liberal activists

This probably will not happen in the next four years but even if it does, is that really all that important? They have already had their major victory when the court upheld ObamaCare. How many earth-shattering cases like that even make it to the Supreme Court? And, I would venture a guess that Ruth Bader Ginsburg will be the next judge to need a backfill.

ObamaCare will fundamentally change the country

Maybe at first, but Americans are already finding ways around it. The M.D. VIP program offers individuals unfettered access to a network of doctors with limited numbers of patients for around $1500/year. That is certainly less than the cost of ObamaCare. I believe we will see a bifurcated healthcare system that still offers choice, because the best doctors prefer to work in programs like M.D. VIP. And the states that refuse to implement the ObamaCare Medicaid provisions will be where the businesses go. The intransigent states like California, Illinois, and New York will continue to bleed companies and middle-class voters, leaving only the very rich and people who are addicted to entitlements. Ultimately, the law will be chipped away or ignored because it is poorly written.

The media and universities are indoctrinating our children

What makes you think either institution is doing well? The legacy media outlets (NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, NYT, and Washington Post) are corporations with bottom lines. They can no longer ignore falling profits, nor can they make excuses for them. They are not selling what the people want... period.

The universities are also facing a reckoning. Their inability to prepare students for jobs has even some liberal parents rattled. Only the most extreme kool aid drinkers would want to spend their life savings on an education that leaves their kid jobless and destitute. When I see Harvard having to offer online courses, to the inevitable chagrin of overly-comfortable faculty members, I know the market is a serious threat to the liberal professor orthodoxy.

The law profession is still dominated by liberals

It is, but even that is becoming less attractive. Walter Russell Mead (referencing WSJ) has already blogged about this. The title of Mead's blog entry says it all - "Lawyers Get Kicked Back to Coach." Need I say more?

Obama will entangle the US in punishing United Nations treaties

Oh please. How many times have leaders like Vladimir Putin refused to abide by treaties? The UN never does anything about it. Those agreements will become scraps of paper like most of what the UN produces.

So mourn Romney's loss today, but tomorrow pick yourselves up, dust yourselves off, and carry on. Do what conservatives always do -- work hard and thank God for our great nation, which will see better days. Let the other side thank government... as far as that goes. They will be the ones mourning soon enough.

A temporary reprieve, that's what. I am reading a lot of doom and gloom in the posts and comments on American Thinker this morning. Yes, yes I know -- four more years of Obama. That does stink. But, has Obama really won anything permanent? I would argue that he has not. Let me go into some of the reasons why. I will address the obvious worries of my fellow American Thinker readers one-by-one.

Obama will turn the US into an entitlement state

The U.S. was an entitlement state long before Obama. He only accelerated the process. However, in doing so, he also accelerated the pace of cities and municipalities acknowledging the budget shortfalls they had been hiding for decades. Now they are falling like dominoes and he is powerless to stop it. He is also powerless to stop governors like Scott Walker from enacting reforms that bring real prosperity. The media will not be able to hide this forever. It is too close to home or coming soon to a city near you.

The Democrats will have a permanent majority

Sure, they will. Some of us seem to have forgotten the wave of correction in November of 2010. Think of the disgust after four more years of unwillingness to get government out of the way of the private sector and blaming Bush for businesses sitting on their cash. The Democrats will have to move forward after Obama and that will be a tough sell after nearly a decade of stagnation.

They will take away our guns

Yeah, right. You know how we conservatives lament the fact that progressives have spent the past century infiltrating every area of public life? Well, conservatives have spent the past two centuries collecting firearms for maintaining the peace and for nonviolent sport. The number of privately-owned firearms is so large that the state and federal governments could never hope to confiscate them all. And who would carry out the confiscations anyway? Police? How many anti-gun officers do you know? Their heart would not be in it and the whole program would devolve into a token effort.

They will replace conservative Supreme Court justices with liberal activists

This probably will not happen in the next four years but even if it does, is that really all that important? They have already had their major victory when the court upheld ObamaCare. How many earth-shattering cases like that even make it to the Supreme Court? And, I would venture a guess that Ruth Bader Ginsburg will be the next judge to need a backfill.

ObamaCare will fundamentally change the country

Maybe at first, but Americans are already finding ways around it. The M.D. VIP program offers individuals unfettered access to a network of doctors with limited numbers of patients for around $1500/year. That is certainly less than the cost of ObamaCare. I believe we will see a bifurcated healthcare system that still offers choice, because the best doctors prefer to work in programs like M.D. VIP. And the states that refuse to implement the ObamaCare Medicaid provisions will be where the businesses go. The intransigent states like California, Illinois, and New York will continue to bleed companies and middle-class voters, leaving only the very rich and people who are addicted to entitlements. Ultimately, the law will be chipped away or ignored because it is poorly written.

The media and universities are indoctrinating our children

What makes you think either institution is doing well? The legacy media outlets (NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, NYT, and Washington Post) are corporations with bottom lines. They can no longer ignore falling profits, nor can they make excuses for them. They are not selling what the people want... period.

The universities are also facing a reckoning. Their inability to prepare students for jobs has even some liberal parents rattled. Only the most extreme kool aid drinkers would want to spend their life savings on an education that leaves their kid jobless and destitute. When I see Harvard having to offer online courses, to the inevitable chagrin of overly-comfortable faculty members, I know the market is a serious threat to the liberal professor orthodoxy.

The law profession is still dominated by liberals

It is, but even that is becoming less attractive. Walter Russell Mead (referencing WSJ) has already blogged about this. The title of Mead's blog entry says it all - "Lawyers Get Kicked Back to Coach." Need I say more?

Obama will entangle the US in punishing United Nations treaties

Oh please. How many times have leaders like Vladimir Putin refused to abide by treaties? The UN never does anything about it. Those agreements will become scraps of paper like most of what the UN produces.

So mourn Romney's loss today, but tomorrow pick yourselves up, dust yourselves off, and carry on. Do what conservatives always do -- work hard and thank God for our great nation, which will see better days. Let the other side thank government... as far as that goes. They will be the ones mourning soon enough.